I'd like to build an application with a "drawer" GUI element, like it is all over the place in Mac OS X.
Is it possible to do so in Linux/Windows? Is it possible to build it crossplatform?
A:
Drawers are no long really used on the Mac. I only know of a few that still use them and most of these are older applications. Most have moved the sidebar into the app in a collapsable split view.
Martin Pilkington
2009-02-28 16:09:12
+1
A:
I like OS X drawers, but they are not used nearly as often as they used to be. The only apps that I currently use that makes use of them are OmniWeb and TextMate.
I don't think it's worth trying to recreate that UI feature for Windows or Linux. In addition to being too much work, your users likely will find it jarring.
Generally speaking, a standard sidebar ought to support whatever you might use a drawer for.
Paul Lefebvre
2009-03-01 00:50:36
+1
A:
You all say that drawer is not in use "anymore", which doesn't really help. In any case, I see it fit on a TextMate perfectly, and noone complains about it :-)
Alex
2009-03-01 06:51:37
Actually, I believe TextMate is moving away from the drawer to the inline project list provided by the Project Plus plugin. Moving the UI inline would work a lot better for porting to Linux and Windows as well as it would work better for maximised windows.
Martin Pilkington
2009-03-01 17:17:13
+1
A:
KDE seems to have a drawers-like functionality as seen in KDevelop, and some other applications (Kate, the editor, uses them too), but I have never tried to use them in anything I've written, and so would have no idea how to write them.
supercheetah
2009-03-01 11:19:42